The Pilgrm

About The Pilgrm

The Pilgrm occupies a pair of restored Victorian townhouses at 25 London Street, a minute's walk from Paddington station. The building had been a run-down budget hotel for decades before it was stripped back and rebuilt, and the restoration is the point: original tiling, plasterwork and staircases were kept and repaired where possible, and the new work - custom steel fittings, aluminium and brass lamps, plain plastered walls - was designed to sit alongside them rather than cover them up.

The hotel calls itself a smart and affordable take on the traditional London hotel, and that is a fair description of how it operates. There is no formal reception desk; you are checked in by staff with tablets in the ground-floor cafe, which is run in partnership with Monmouth Coffee and open to the street. The Lounge on the first floor is the hotel's living room, serving small plates, wine and cocktails through the day and evening. An art collection runs through the public areas and corridors.

Bedrooms are compact and carefully specified rather than large: good linen, rainfall showers, and no wasted furniture. The smallest rooms are genuinely small, so it is worth stepping up a category if you are staying several nights or travelling with luggage.

The location is the practical argument. Paddington puts you on the Elizabeth line for a direct run into the West End, the City and Canary Wharf, and on the Heathrow Express for a fifteen-minute airport transfer. Hyde Park is a ten-minute walk south, and Little Venice and the Regent's Canal towpath are five minutes north.